Obesity clinical trials at UCSF

Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is a major contributor to childhood obesity, caries, fatty liver disease, and Type 2 diabetes. Latino children are more likely to consume sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and to suffer from all of the aforementioned conditions. Reading out loud to children from birth through age 5 is critical for the promotion of language and early literacy skills. Children whose parents read aloud to them are more likely to start school with the skills required for early reading success. This is important as reading proficiency in third grade is the best predictor of high school graduation and career success. Latino children are less likely to be read to than non-Hispanic white children and at higher risk of entering kindergarten without critical early literacy skills. Thus, there is a pressing need for interventions to reduce SSB consumption among Latino children as well as interventions that promote reading out loud. Primary care is an optimal setting for such interventions. However, multiple demands on providers' time make it difficult to rely on in-person interventions. For this reason, it is critical to test intervention designs that do not rely directly on health care providers and that can be delivered remotely if needed. The investigators have developed two m-health interventions for Latino parents, one that promotes optimal beverage consumption patterns and one that promotes reading out loud to children. The purpose of this study is to test the impact of these interventions on child beverage intake patterns and the frequency with which parents read to children.

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of the Bright Bodies intervention in improving body mass index (BMI) among 8-12 year-old children with obesity simultaneously with the impact of the implementation strategy on adoption, reach, fidelity, cost, and maintenance of the intervention in three heterogenous settings serving patients disproportionately affected by obesity.

It is widely argued that the promotion of water consumption, as an alternative to sugar-sweetened beverages, can assist in childhood obesity prevention efforts. Yet no studies have tested this argument in real world schools where flavored milk or juices are available. This trial will fill gaps by examining how promoting fresh water intake-both in schools that do and do not provide access to caloric beverages -impacts children's consumption of food and beverages both during and outside of school, and obesity.

The main objective of this study is to establish a national pediatric obesity registry known as POWER (Pediatric Obesity Weight Evaluation Registry). This registry will contain clinical data from individual comprehensive pediatric weight management programs around the United States for overweight and obese youth.